Integration of InAs QD comb lasers with silicon photonics ring resonators

In the research of silicon photonics, nearly all of the silicon photonics interconnect components have been individually demonstrated, such as, lasers, modulators and detectors with the performance competitive with the electronic-only counterparts [1]. One of the biggest challenges is the seamless integration of robust and low-powered lasers with other silicon photonics devices, where the lasers need to be operated at relatively high ambient temperatures (70–80°C) and the emission wavelengths need to be varied to achieve a multichannel laser array with large transmission bandwidth. Due to the size inhomogeneity of QDs, QD lasers usually exhibit broad gain spectrum, and QD comb lasers with uniform and broad emission spectrum have been demonstrated [2]. Such unique broadband laser sources have the potential to replace a laser array with a single comb laser, and to enhance the total power consumption efficiency (power/bits).